Mom! June rhymes with Baboon!

Greta's favorite game is finding rhymes for everything these days. That, and playing pink panther. Who knew the pink panther would find a second life in the imagination of my 4 year old? It is true and weird.

Our Memorial weekend, was....almost fun. The kids ended the week before with a stomach virus. Yes, both of them. But we thought the storm had passed and that we could sneak away to see our friends the Schensted's down in SW MN on Sunday night. Well. Wes dropped the ultimate vom bomb when we were 45 min away from their house. EPIC I tell you (It reminded me of this...Warning- not for the faint of heart. This is disgusting: http://thisisphotobomb.memebase.com/2009/05/26/epic-vom-bom/ Forgive me for sharing that image, but the truth is, I still laugh every time I see that picture. However, I was NOT laughing when I was cleaning up the backseat on the side of the highway). We continued on, hoping it was just a little car sickness. Well after a fun night of board games (the Schen's have a monster game collection and they are our source for all good games...) Greta's vomiting returned with a vengeance. Oiye.

The good news...once they felt better (5 days later with 1 more self-imposed quarantine day for the sake of all Minnesotans) the weather became Minnesota Niiiiiice. Sunny & warm. Light breeze. Eat your hearts out Southern peeps. So there have been:

several days in the kiddie pool (big pools aren't open yet...),

bike rides, enjoying our new neighborhood farmers' market,

picnics with friends,

and general lounging about.

And yesterday for Magical Mystery Monday (our family day, which we are trying to make extra adventurous this summer) we went to the Science Museum and took in the dinosaurs. She was a big fan. Wesser even seemed intrigued by the big bone-a-sauruses.

We're getting ready for our adventures in June. We'll have lots of pictures and stories to share from the coming weeks. We hope your summer has gotten off to a great start!

Ballerina...or at least a born performer!

Greta's ballet recital was this morning so I couldn't resist putting up a few pics. Recital is kind of a strong word for what transpired this morning. She walked across the floor, did a little jumping, a little twirling...that about sums it up. I'm not sure she's a natural...but she did enjoy being on stage (no surprises here). The pictures give it some expression, but when we can get the video posted you will see that the majority of our "show" was really thumbs ups and blowing kisses to our adoring crowd. Seriously. They did do one brief scarf dance. Greta kept her scarf wadded in a ball pretty much the whole time. When it was time to bow, Greta busied herself with tying the scarf around her neck in a stylish fashion. Oh. My. Have a giggle...and enjoy the live show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumSh84yL2E

You're welcome....

May Days

The warm weather finally came! It has, of course, disappeared in true MN fashion. But hopefully next week we will be returning to the 60s and 70s (that's normal for this time of year, folks). We celebrated Tyler's 33rd birthday and Mother's Day in one big shebang on the 8th. Greta had her LAST day of her first year of preschool (the reality will grab her next week...). She had an amazing class and an amazing teacher...she has always bounded right into class without looking back. I hope we'll run into her classmates at the park this summer! Wes appears to have his umpteenth ear infection- which if confirmed this afternoon- means tubes for our handsome boy. After what feels like our standard weekly Friday afternoon doctors visits this spring, we are now ready for tubes if that is what it takes to rid Wesser of these ear infections. You wouldn't believe how pleasant he is even when he has a raging infection. What a love. He's choosing to walk over crawling almost all the time now. We're still waiting for more words, but he is chatty in his own way too. Tyler has been uber busy at work. All good things but he is tired. He is starting a DMin in preaching this summer and is excited to have time in the classroom again. I hope it will be revitalizing rather than one more thing on his already busy plate. I have been busy getting summer programming ready to go and figuring out what I'm going to be doing with my beautiful babes this summer. Summer freedom is both exciting and overwhelming with 2 busy kiddos. I know it will be great. Here are a few pics of us out and about in the sun. HOPEFULLY there will be more to come soon!

xo,

e & the clan

Spring Fun

Well, it is official. This spring is the coldest, snowiest stinkin' spring on record. Great. Thankfully Greta's Spring Concert at Preschool is here to brighten our day. Here are a few favorite pictures of the big event and a link to the live performance. Please forgive us for the couple of times that the camera goes wonky...that is little brother Wes in action!

Here's the link to the fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z9kxqUvanE

Happy Easter!

We survived it...600+ people at LHUMC services this morning, kiddo transfers, and family gatherings. Yeah, we more than survived it. We enjoyed it. Punctuated with a gorgeous day, *finally*, this was one of our happiest Easters on record. Happy Easter to all of you. We hope the joy of the day was palpable in your celebrations.

In addition to Easter fun, Wes is walking. Started doing his thing last night while we were skyping Granny & Gramps. As Greta says, it is crazy loco. A video is posted on facebook if you want to see the action in person!

Happy Easter from the Christiansens!

Happy Birthday Wessy!

Pictures from Wessy's birthday AND his cousin Noah's birth...they share the same birthday! Yahoo! Enjoy these photos of our great day!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

It is hard to believe that today marks the one year anniversary of Wes' arrival into our family.

1 week early by due dates.

1 day early for his scheduled induction date.

Right on time for us.

Last year we needed Wes to arrive. Not in the "we can't wait to have a baby" sense of the phrase. Not in the "I'm so uncomfortable that you must come now" way that many moms feel in the last trimester (though, I had that feeling many times!). His arrival proved that we had survived.

Wes' birth followed his sister's near brush with death by a mere 4 months. Those months we were consumed by concern, grief, struggle, loss of innocence, and gradual recovery. Greta recovered physically & cognitively from the illness quite quickly. We, her parents, were slower to rebound. We put one foot in front of the other, focusing on what had to be done for her.

And then it was April. The reality that Wes would soon be with us was undeniable to anyone who saw me. We finally cleared out the nursery and readied it for his arrival. Easter came and went, and then we realized...we were ready. At least physically we were ready. We wondered emotionally how prepared we were for his birth.

After measuring big for months, Wes was becoming super-sized. At 39 weeks he was large enough to lead our OB to weigh the possibility of an induction. On Wed the 14th at my weekly appointment an induction date was set- Friday the 16th. We had one day to finish preparations, laundry, prep the guest room and prepare our hearts for Wes to join us. And then..in the wee hours of Wednesday night/Thursday morning right before we went to bed my water broke. We laughed. In a year that nothing had gone according to plan, we were reminded once again that parenthood is a dance with the unknown. We were thankful that this surprise was a happy one. We headed to the hospital. I labored all morning and at 12:34 pm on Thursday April 15th, Wesley Tyler joined our family in the flesh.

In that moment he rescued us.

His birth signaled the moment when we began to make the transition from survival to living again. Holding him put to rest all of my worries...

was my heart ready to be so vulnerable again?

would there be enough of me for another small one?

would I feel connected to him, even though I'd spent the lion's share of his gestation consumed with his sister's recovery?

He was enough. We were enough. Surplus love.

Wes has been an ideal baby in most ways (we'll forgive the 9 months of iffy sleeping...). A snuggler, an easy smiler, a sister watcher, a voracious eater, and a plain ol' happy baby. We've given him many nicknames- Woo, Woobear, Chubby Bubby, Messy Wessy, and just Wessy of course. We've loved watching him grow and marvel at both how quickly time passes and how it feels like he has been a part of this family forever.

At one year he crawls, cruises (those first steps will come soon), climbs, loves to swing, loves to get into kitchen cabinets, takes on the stairs with a maniacal laugh, follows GBoo EVERYWHERE, gives kisses (open mouthed, bitey type kisses which we all love to receive), is freakishly strong, loves playing peekaboo in the castle, picks up books often, makes car sounds as he moves his cars, has 4 upper teeth & 4 lower teeth, loves "lights," still "tucks" on occasion (puts his arms between his body and ours- it is the ultimate snuggly move), has more of Tyler's expressions than you could ever believe and has 2 words we think- Greta (Gee-tah) and Doggie.

Happy Birthday my little Love. Thank you for all that you have brought to us as a family. We adore you and are grateful for this year with you!

We will celebrate Wes' birthday this weekend and we'll follow this post with some birthday footage.